


Hell is Other People

by ChrissiHR



Series: It's the Great Countdown, Darcy Lewis [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: 31 Days Of Halloween, Deal with a Devil, Devil Inside, F/M, INXS - Freeform, Magical Pregnancy, October 1, Promptober, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Wordcount: 100-2.000, Wordcount: 500-1.000, Wordcount: Under 10.000, song prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 19:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12238929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrissiHR/pseuds/ChrissiHR
Summary: Night 1 ...in which Darcy has a little devil inside...





	Hell is Other People

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SerialObsessor (ibelieveinturtles)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibelieveinturtles/gifts).



> Welcome to **It's the Great Countdown, Darcy Lewis** , a 31 Nights of Halloween advent calendar! In September, my subscribers on tumblr and readers on AO3 were given the opportunity to choose a Halloween-related song and a Darcy Lewis pairing. The first 31 replies I received with both a pairing and a song from the provided list of song prompts snagged a spot on this very special Halloween fanfic countdown! (Prompters will be tagged in their gift fic on either tumblr or AO3, depending on where they claimed their prompt.) Make sure you click to subscribe to the series, [It's the Great Countdown, Darcy Lewis](http://archiveofourown.org/series/835899), or click on my name, [ChrissiHR](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ChrissiHR/profile), and click the "subscribe" button to receive notifications for all of my new works so you don't miss a single night of the countdown!
> 
> All of the stories in this countdown are beta'd by phoenix_173.
> 
> Night 1 prompt: Darcy x Bucky, Devil Inside by Inxs

 

“I’m sure everything is just fine, doll,” Bucky soothed his girl as they walked hand in hand down the corridor to the senior labs level.

“Buck…” Darcy grimaced and laid a soothing hand over the swell of her belly as a trio of bumps surged and pressed from beneath, like three little shark fins racing under her skin. Her belly growled with indigestion.

Bucky swallowed the sudden ball of nerves closing his throat.

“Did you see that?” she whispered, tracing the path of the … spines under her sweater. “I don’t think normal human babies have dorsal ridges, Buckaroo.”

“Dr. Bruce’ll have some answers for us by now. He’s had the blood samples and amnio results at least since he called last night to set up the appointment. Everything will be fine.” He patted Darcy’s hand over her belly as the automatic doors of Banner’s lab opened with a whisper.

“Darcy, thank god,” Bruce breathed when they walked into the darkened lab.

Footsteps pattered quietly in a circle around them, raising the hairs on the back of Bucky’s neck. He turned in a circle, gripping Darcy and pulling her tight against his back.

They were surrounded by the other Avengers, every one of them kitted out in full battle gear.

“What the hell is going on here?” Bucky growled.

“Just a precaution.” Dr. Banner lifted a placating hand to hold the others off. “There were some … unusual anomalies in Darcy’s amniocentesis.”

“Swear to Christ, Banner,” Bucky snarled, “I don’t care if the devil himself is growing inside my girl. You touch one hair on her head in anything other than kindness, and I will burn down this city and salt the earth.”

Bruce took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “About that…”

“About what?” Darcy asked, rubbing her fingertips together. She glared and pressed them together even harder.

“Wha’s wrong, doll?” Bucky asked out of the corner of his mouth.

“Tingly. And hot.” She hiccuped. “Oof!” Her eyes watered.

“Darcy…” Dr. Banner sidled closer, watching Bucky with a wary eye. “Does that happen often?”

“The tingly? Or the hot?”

“The indigestion.”

“Oh, um… Pretty often now, I guess. It has a weird aftertaste, like I had for a week or so after I got that B12 shot from the SHIELD infirmary.”

“Before Insight?” Stark closed the distance and Bucky pulled a knife.

“Back off,” he ordered the tin can billionaire.

Slowly, Darcy nodded. “Yes, but what does that have to do with—”

Something flashed out of the corner of Bucky’s eye.

“Oh!” Darcy flicked her fingertips, waving a pair of tiny black flames clinging to the end of each finger like plastic wrap that wouldn’t let go.

Bucky’s heart leapt into his throat, but Banner was already there with a small fire suppression blanket, covering her hand until she nodded.

“I’m good,” Darcy whispered, “but the baby’s not, is he?”

“Honestly, he’s probably fine,” Banner assured her. “We just don’t have anything to compare him to at the moment.”

“Those weren’t B12 shots they gave me, huh?”

Banner shook his head. “You said there was an aftertaste?”

“Yeah, weird, like eggs—”

“Sulphur?” Barton’s eyebrows shot up. He knocked an arrow, but kept the bow pointed at the ground for the time being.

Bucky’s skin crawled as his teammates tightened the circle, blocking the exits.

“I’m burping brimstone?” Darcy’s voice jumped an octave. Her eyes dropped to the floor, flicking back and forth with the speed of her racing thoughts as she came to the same conclusion as Bucky and the others. “Hydra was inside SHIELD. That wasn’t a B12 shot or some other kind of experimental vitamin cocktail.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Banner looked genuinely sorry.

“What do we do n—” Darcy cut herself off as she looked around the room at Bucky’s teammates. “Oh… This isn’t a precautionary thing. This is a Rosemary’s Baby thing.”

“If the Hulk can live in this building,” Bucky growled, “the least you owe our little guy is the chance to prove himself innocent.”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible.” Steve lifted the shield.

Bucky damn near dropped his knife. “You gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.”

“Sorry, Buck,” Steve said as his muscles coiled, “but some things gotta be sacrificed for the greater good.”

“An’ if it were me, instead’a my girl,” Bucky spat, “you’d be on the other side of this fight, so don’t blow sunshine up my ass about the greater good, you hypocritical son of a bitch.”

Adjusting his grip on the first knife, Bucky pulled a second and smiled when Darcy helped herself to the one at the small of his back.

“This doesn't have to end in a fight. Just let Bruce deal with whatever thing is growin’ in your girl and—”

“I’d like to see you try,” Bucky challenged his oldest friend with a wicked gleam in his eye.

As blade met shield, a wall of black flame burst to life, pushing them apart, separating Darcy and Bucky from the others. Darcy muttered a quiet exclamation of gratitude under her breath to whoever was looking out for them.

A portal opened in the center of the circle of flame as the shouts of their so-called friends died down to muffled protests and a woman with fair skin, wearing a helm crowned by majestic black antlers lifted an arm in greeting.

“Perhaps you’ll find my welcome _warmer_ than your friends’,” she crooned.

Darcy sighed in relief as she and Bucky stepped through the portal hand-in-hand. “Thank you, Miss…?”

“Call me Hela.” She laughed like it was an inside joke.

**Author's Note:**

> _Coming up tomorrow, Night 2 - Welcome to the Freak Show._


End file.
